Pintafish: a company in transition

General

Pintafish originated from a personal search for good fish. In order to bridge the various fishing seasons, the choice was made for freezing. Thanks to good warehouse management and this storage method, we can minimise food waste.

Throughout the history of Pintafish, more and more partnerships with like-minded companies were established. Inland for marketing, abroad for supply.

Unknown is unloved

We love teaching our customers about alternative, delicious fish species.

Pintafish offers various, often unknown species of wild fish.  Everything our fishermen catch is thus used, and nothing is lost.  By consuming these unknown species, the pressure on popular and overfished species such as cod decreases, and together we build an inhabitable sea.

The North Sea offers many tasty and healthy fish species such as: pouting, tub gurnard, plaice, grey gurnard, mullet and dab.  Our seasonal packages are an ideal way to get acquainted with the lesser-known fish.

Pintafish only supplies seasonal fish. By delivering from the freezer, a nice assortment can be guaranteed even during periods of low supply.

RSC Responsible Supply Chain

‘Towards a sustainable sea together with fishermen, processors and consumers’

At Pintafish, we strive to build a sustainable chain. Sustainability, a word that is used and often abused, is not only the task of the fisherman but also the responsibility of the processor and consumer.  Clear and transparent communication is crucial to making the right decisions.  We therefore insist on informing those involved as fully as possible and making this information accessible.

Swimming against the stream: choosing the road less travelled

‘Free trade and innovation are being abused’

Direct purchase is a must in order for the communication to flow smoothly to and from the fisherman.  The Belgian fish auction is abusing its position to prevent these direct sales, although there is no law prohibiting this.  For Pintafish and other direct buyers/sellers, this auction is a needless, cost-increasing intermediate step.  For RSC, each intermediate step must make a substantial contribution to the product.

Behind every Pintafish product is a philosophy, a basis without which we do not want to sell.

The logistics

'If you want it fresh, buy it frozen’

For years, Pintafish worked on a logistics system to offer consumers everything the fisherman catches.  Nothing is lost in this system, and it makes an effective contribution to the solution of overfishing!

The most important link, the consumer

‘With your support, we can achieve this improvement’

Pintafish is supported by the ILVO (Institute for Agriculture and Fisheries Research) and the VLIZ (Flemish Institute for the Sea).  Their scientific information is very important to us.

Naturpunt, Climaxi and many other organisations also support Pintafish, but you, as a customer, are the most important link that makes it possible to actually implement this project.

Pintafish, fair fish!

Bon appetit!

Pintafish and Belgium

For Belgian fish, we opt for less overfished species and consider seasons and fishing areas. By consuming lesser-known species, the pressure on species that are overfished is reduced.
The Belgian fleet mainly works with beam trawls (chains), with a few exceptions where fishing is done with rods and reels.  This information can always be found on the packaging.

Every year, large quantities of fish are fed to the ‘mill’. These are then processed into dog food, cat food, meal for pigs etc.  Together with our partner on the sea, we have created packages from these fish, to introduce the customer to all the beauty that the sea has to offer. The idea of seasonal packages or introductory packages brought us into contact with Slow-fish where we came into contact with several like-minded companies.

And what if there are no mill fish? Then we take advantage of the opportunity to introduce you to other beautiful fish.

Pintafish and the Netherlands

Mullet from Job and Miranda Bout together with son Sjaak

Vis van Job is the name of the fishing company that is a partnership of Job and Miranda Bout from Tholen. For a number of years, son Shaak has also been fishing with his father for mullet, sprat and crabs, just as his grandfather did. With the large boat TH 16 ‘Harder’ and the sloop TH 17, they fish with sustainable seine and net fishing in the Zeeland streams (rivers?). They've been fishing for mullet for four generations. Mullet live in areas where salt and freshwater meet. You often see them at locks or harbours. Mullet fishing is very sustainable by design: hardly any fuel is used and the bottom remains untouched. The  Bout  fishers are small-scale fishermen, use responsible fishing methods and are affiliated with Goede Vissers. On the water, they do not use specific equipment to detect the mullet: they  peer with their eyes.

'Seine fishing is the game between fish and fisherman.

If the fish is smarter than the fisherman, it will stay behind the net.' 

When Job and Sjaak are at sea, Miranda prepares various dishes with fish.  She produces, for example, fish soup, fish casseroles and fish lumpia.  Locally, she set up a fish@home shop in Tholen.  You can order from Bout family and the fish will be brought to your home. Looking for a nice fish-related gift? Take a look at their webshop.

https://zeeuwsevis.nl

In addition to fishing, Job, Miranda and son Shaak also put their boat at the service of science. For example, they participate in research into plastics in the sea and the measurement of fish stocks.

Genuine WILD Wad OYSTERS from Jan and Barbara

Directly from Jan and Barbara from the Wadden Sea in Lauwersoog, all the way in the north of the Netherlands. Jan and Barbara, fishermen on the TS31 Internos, are part of  the Goede Vissers and have been part of the Slow Fish world from the very beginning. They live for their profession. Regardless of the wind and weather, they head out, and they have been striving for years for better fishing. Their restaurant -'t Ailand - is also definitely worth a visit if you are in the north with the northern neighbours. It is located at the end of the land, against the sea, and in addition to the oysters (which they sometimes literally pick when you order them) they also have delicious dishes with fresh fish on the menu.

We met Jan and Barbara at the biennial Slow Food meeting in Turijn. Like us, they have a strong commitment to sustainable and viable fishing. Through this collaboration, we want to support each other. By acting together, we stay in touch and can exchange ideas and products. That makes us all better.

The Wild Wad oysters grow spontaneously on the wild shellfish beds in the pristine nature of the nature reserve. Because they are collected by hand, the shellfish bank remains intact. Specific to the intertidal area in which the oysters grow is that they stand dry twice a day from an early age. So they are out of the water for part of the day, and in the summer they sit in the burning sun without water. As a result, the sphincter muscle is very strong, as it closes as tightly as possible for protection against the elements of nature. A consequence of this is that wild oysters last longer than farmed oysters.

ZEELAND MUSSELS

Our mussels come from Neeltje Jans. All activities of fishing, watering on plots, rinsing on the ship and in the company, as well as packaging are carried out by Neeltje Jans onsite.
The Vrouwenpolder where Neeltje Jans fishes is the most fertile for the cultivation of mussels. They also have the 'Zeker Zeeuws' certification. This means that the mussels are guaranteed to originate from the Oosterschelde National Park, from conception to product ready for sale. So they do not have to be transported first from Ireland or Chile, but have spent their whole lives in the same nutritious waters. The water of Vrouwenpolder is very favourable for mussels, and the area is close to Belgium.

Because we buy directly from the manufacturer, we can ensure that the mussels are delivered to us as fresh as possible.

The mussels from Neeltje Jans are like all Zeeland mussels MSC, although we attach less importance to this.

Pintafish and England

Sole of Discretion (SOD) is a fishing cooperative based in Plymouth, UK, founded by Caroline Bennett, who also founded the first Sushi restaurant in London. In her search for high-quality and sustainable fish for her restaurant, she came to the conclusion that there are several sustainable local fishermen in England, but that their fish is often not offered as sustainable fish and is therefore absorbed in the masses or that it is very difficult to get specific access to these fish. That is why she decided to do it herself together with some fishermen who are members of the cooperative.

The aim is to market sustainable fish, derived from fishing methods with the lowest possible impact on the eco-system. The vast majority of the fish come from the fishermen who are members of the cooperative. The vessels are less than 7 metres in size and use nets with larger holes. Their fishing methods have a minimal impact, and, because of the size of the vessels, they do not have the possibility to collect too many fish in one go. In addition, they cannot sail out if the sea is too wild. It is also about day fishing, which means that the fisherman leaves early in the morning and delivers his fish to the workshop during the day. That workshop is located in the port and after the fish are landed, they are immediately filleted, packaged and frozen with a shock freezer. This keeps the fish as fresh as possible.

The main fishing methods used by vessels fishing for SOD are lightly trawled (floating net), the fishing line, pots or baskets and hand-diving for the Mediterranean scallops.

Since boats are already in one of the best fishing grounds in the world, the number of food-kilometres is very limited. For transport, we do not opt for the boat (consumes too much) but for the truck. A large part of the transport journey is spent by the fish on the train because of the water between us.

Pintafish and Finland

VENDACE FROM PURUVESI FINLAND. Puruvesi Lake (416km ²) is located in northern Finland, in northern Karelia and southern Savo. There lives the Vendace (Coregonus Albula), known in Dutch as the Little Marene. It is a small freshwater fish with white meat that can grow between 10 and 20cm long and belongs to the Salmonidae family. The Vendace can be found in the lakes of Northern Europe where the fish enjoy large, deep lakes with clear water. It is a non-threatened species.

The Vendace is the main freshwater fish of inland Finnish fishermen. He is caught with seines, trawls and other nets. In Finland, it is a very popular fish.

WHAT MAKES THEM SPECIAL?

Puruvesi Lake is an oligotrophic lake. This means that there are few mineral nutrients present, but that there can also be a great biodiversity. The lake is known as a lake with clean water of high quality. That's what makes these vendace so special. They are known for their soft bones that you can easily eat, the abundant presence of vitamin D, the absence of mercury and heavy metals.

The Vendace from Puruvesi lake was awarded a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) by the European Union in 2013 because of the quality of the fish and the traditional fishing methods associated with the Puruvesi lake.

TRADITIONAL SEINE FISHING IN WINTER, SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES

Fishing with seines in winter is a traditional method of fishing used when the lake is frozen. The first record of Puruvesi seining dates back to the 14th century. It is a small-scale fishery that respects fish stocks and has a rich cultural tradition.

In order to guarantee the quality of the lake and its fish stocks, fishermen on the Puruvesi lake have decided not to use trawling to fish on the lake. To this day, they have succeeded in this! Snowchange (an organisation committed to protecting traditional fishing methods in the northern part of the world) has 3 seine fishers between 25 and 35 years of age.

Pintafish and Alaska

Salmon, it's a bit of an odd fish in the net. This product was added at the request of our customers. When we removed the farmed salmon from the selection years ago, they asked us to look for a good alternative to farmed salmon.  We found this salmon in Alaska where we came into contact with smaller fishing communities or fishing cooperatives through common acquaintances. Since there is good stock management and we can buy from smaller companies where possible, this seemed to us a good alternative to regular salmon. We brought you two kinds of salmon: the Sockeye and the King salmon. The King has the highest Omega-3 of the salmon species and a very intense taste. Sometimes we also have Coho, Pink and Keta in our assortment.

For baking, we recommend you not to cook this salmon completely, as it is a real athlete with little fat.  If you cook it well done, it's going to be too dry.

Our salmon is sliced in the Studio of Sole of Discretion in England (see also the explanation above) SOD.  Because SOD only works with day fishing of small vessels, the workshop is less occupied in bad weather.  The salmon can serve in these calmer periods to increase profitability in the workshop. In this way, small initiatives support each other.